


Masks

by BinJLG



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Castiel and Jimmy Novak are Twins (Supernatural), Closeted Dean Winchester, Closeted Relationship, Coming Out, Dean and Cas are the only characters in it, M/M, Masquerade, Mention of a murder, Mentions of homophobia, Out Castiel, Secret Relationship, Sweet 16, everyone else is just mentioned, mention of a mugging, no slurs though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2019-11-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:55:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21527107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BinJLG/pseuds/BinJLG
Summary: "Claire had decided she wanted her party to be masquerade themed and that’s just what you do at masquerade parties. Only after he saw half the guests had taken their masks off did Dean feel comfortable enough to do the same."
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Comments: 4
Kudos: 43
Collections: Profound Bond Gift Exchange: Masquerade





	Masks

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Huntress79](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Huntress79/gifts).



> Wow, it’s been a while since I published something, huh? Written for Huntress79 as part of the Profound Bond Masquerade Exchange ❤️ [On Tumblr](https://honeyedtfw.tumblr.com/post/189240616459/masks)

Dean stood on a balcony at the venue that his best friend and long term partner Cas had rented for Claire’s sweet 16 party. The night had been a massive success. It was a combination of friends and family members that he wasn’t sure about at first since he’d always thought Cas’s family were a bunch of rich uptight snobs and Claire’s friends came from blue collar working-class families. Thankfully, there were members of Cas’s family who were surprisingly cool, and those who obviously weren’t happy about Claire’s choice of friends or how Cas was raising his niece put on a civil face and would be passive aggressive about the whole thing later. He fiddled aimlessly with the black domino in his hand as his elbows rested on the guard rail, glad that he wasn’t forced to wear it the entire night like he thought he’d have to. Claire had decided she wanted her party to be masquerade themed and that’s just what you do at masquerade parties. Only after he saw half the guests had taken their masks off did Dean feel comfortable enough to do the same.

“My family’s gone. You can stop hiding now.”

Dean glanced around to see Cas rest his elbows on the stone next to him, their arms touching. His tone was teasing, but there was an undertone of bitterness to it.

“I wasn’t hiding,” Dean rolled his eyes, bumping his elbow against his friend’s. “I just needed some air. It’s been a long night.”

“Agreed.”

They stood in silence for a few moments, Cas stoic while the wheels turned in Dean’s head. Cas was one of the only people who made silence comfortable for Dean. Not even Lisa, his ex-wife and mother of his son, Ben, was able to do that with Dean. Cas had always been able to make Dean comfortable with silence, ever since they met almost 16 years ago at a Parents Without Partners meeting. Despite the comfort, though, something was off about Cas. It had been all night.

Cas broke the silence first.

“I wish Jimmy had been here…” Cas sighed, resting his forehead in his hand, his mouth twisting for a moment and then immediately returning to neutrality with the bob of his Adam’s apple.

Dean looked at Cas sadly and lifted a hand to Cas’s shoulder. Jimmy was Cas’s twin who’d died on the way back from a party at a friend’s house when some meth head decided to tip over the gas station he was refilling at. His wife, Amelia, had been with him at the time and suffered a spinal injury so bad she could barely take care of herself, let alone their infant daughter.

“He’d be proud of her,” Dean consoled. “Claire’s a good kid and you did an awesome job raising her.”

Cas nodded, having heard as much from Amelia earlier that night. Dean knew that was an end to that conversation.

“Claire go back to the house?” Dean asked, his hand moving from Cas’s shoulder to his back, rubbing small circles into it.

He nodded. “Her and the car Gabriel gave her. Ben drove her home.”

“Guess you won’t have to worry about co-ed sleepovers or anything with her, huh?”

Cas chuckled dryly. “Honestly, I never did. She never seemed to like boys growing up. Not in the way other girls her age did. So I always sort of knew.”

Dean gave a short hum as a reply, not sure what else to say. Claire had taken advantage of the platform she had tonight to come out to everyone and Dean seemed to be the only one surprised by this. Granted, he hadn’t even realized he was in love with Cas for 5 years until his brother Sam pointed it out to him, so maybe his gaydar was broken or something.

“Can I say something without you getting mad?” Dean asked.

“That depends on what it is.”

Dean licked his lips anxiously, knowing this was going to be a touchy subject.

“I was really surprised your family wasn’t… that they, uh… that they seemed cool with her. Being a lesbian, I mean.”

“Believe me, not all of them were. But they would never be so uncouth as to make a scene of public homophobia or ruin a social event.”

Dean pushed on.

“Still, I’m glad none of them made a big deal out of it. And that they didn’t turn their noses up at Alex or anything…”

Cas turned and looked at Dean, evaluating him. Dean felt his face grow hot and dropped his gaze. Coming out and making their relationship public had always been a major issue in their relationship. At first, Cas had been okay with keeping things private. He knew that if his dad, Chuck, and older brothers, Michael and Luke, knew he was in a relationship with another man, they’d not only cut him off from his inheritance, but they’d in all likelihood try to take Claire away. She was only 7 when he and Dean began seriously dating and it would have been easy for the wealthy GOP donors to pay off a judge and grant one of them custody over her. But then Chuck died 4 years after that and he started pushing Dean into coming out with him. He’d gotten his inheritance and he was sure his brothers, assholes though they still were, wouldn’t even try to start a lengthy custody battle now that Claire was in double digits. But Dean hesitated. The power Cas’s family had scared him. Even though Cas had his inheritance, Dean knew they could still ostracize him and didn’t think that was good for Claire. The compromise they came to was Cas would come out to test the waters, but their relationship would stay secret. The general reaction seemed to be begrudging acceptance as long as Cas kept quiet about it. This emboldened Cas and he and Dean had been arguing about coming out ever since. For Dean, though, it wasn’t _just_ about coming out and saying that he liked men just as much as he liked women. It was the fact that Cas came from a rich as fuck family and Dean grew up barely being able to eat some days. He was a mechanic for god’s sake. If his family could just barely tolerate Cas being gay, they’d lose their minds if they found out he was being gay with a middle class divorcee with a GED. He knew Cas’s family would never see him as good enough and he didn’t want to do that to him.

But then Claire had come out with her public school girlfriend and he saw how Cas’s cousins Gabriel and Balthazar had congratulated her, how proud Aunt Amara and her daughter Anna had looked and donated $1,000 each to the Trevor Project in honor of the occasion, and it made Dean think.

“Does this mean you’re finally ready to listen to me when I tell you it’s going to be fine?”

Dean’s first instinct was to get defensive, but he knew he deserved the snark. His reluctance had caused a lot of grief in their relationship and frustrated Cas to no end. It was time for that to end.

“Yeah. Yeah, I think I am.” Dean chuckled. He leaned in and nuzzled his forehead against the love of his life’s before kissing his permanently chapped lips tenderly. Cas moved to deepen the kiss and Dean dropped the domino he’d been holding to cup his stubbled face. They left hand in hand with the mask long forgotten.


End file.
